I made the mistake of turning the lights on my Rubicon for 2-3 minutes with the engine OFF. When I attempted to start the engine, of course, the battery was drained. After using the pull starter and running around for awhile, the battery seems OK. I have never experienced any problems with starting my quad before.

Is is normal for headlights to drain a battery this fast? Or could there be something wrong with my battery (or electrical system)? I do not plan on running the lights without the engine again, but I want to make sure there is nothing defective with battery since it is still under warranty.

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

Have you used a voltmeter on the battery to see what it reads now. I wouldn't think the battery would be drained that quick. Chet

 

I did put a voltmeter on it. Before firing it up with the pull starter, the "dead" battery only had about 11 volts on it. While running the engine w/o the lights, the battery shows almost 14V. With the lights on its approx. 13 volts. When I shut off the engine after charging the battery, the voltage is about 12.7 volts. When I turned off the engine and turned on the lights, the battery voltage ticked down about .01 volt every second. It looked like a countdown timer!

I don't know if this amount of drain is normal, but for now I will avoid it by not using the lights without the engine running. I will have the whole electrical system checked out by the local dealer eventually, but I'm not excited about them tearing into my machine . . .

 

WOW that sucks ! on my recon when I use to go camping We had to go home at like 12:00 A.M. And I had my recon with me so we pointed it at the campsite and left it sitting there not running for about an hour with the light on. It started right up. Good luck ,Zeebo.